Why your phone might be holding you back
Our attention is one of the most valuable resources we possess. On the other hand, the amount of distraction from noisy social media feeds, notifications, and instant gratification has never been higher in history.
Thus, being aware of how we spend our valuable amount of attention can have tremendous effects on our ability to focus and to relax deliberately, which leads to a higher functioning in life. Because of all the external stimulation, we lose our ability to shift between focused attention and unfocused relaxation. Hence, most of us are always in full attention mode and therefore lack a profound relaxation of the nervous system.
I stumbled upon the idea during an interview with Andrew D. Huberman, who is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
If you want to be able to be very high functioning in life, you must be able to shift between a state of focused attention and a state of detached, unfocused relaxation to ease your nervous system. (A. D. Huberman)
The one biggest thing that is holding us back from shifting between states of focus and relaxation and ultimately from reaching our full potential during the day — is our phone.
Mr. Hubermann made the point that back in the days, we normally would get some relaxation in between things. Today, we are reflexively looking on our phones and using up every amount of our attention capacity. In return, our nervous system gets no break but is instead firing all the time because of a constant external stimulus.
The paradox, he said, is that we are using up a highly valuable resource, which is our attention. In addition to that, we are giving up another valuable resource, which is this nature pre-installed mechanism of relaxing our nervous system as we transition between things.
“People who are very high functioning in life are very good at transitioning between states. And they do not tend to look at their phone when they pivot. They tend to disengage as they switch, in order to reengage.” (A. D. Huberman)
Takeaways:
We are all like mental-athletes in some way. Who uses their minds, so we need to install those recovery transitions. No self-respecting athlete is going to train all the time, Hubermann said. Rest and recovery are a fundamental part of their regimen.
It is not about just getting engaged in doing something. It is moreover about getting deliberately disengaged now and then, to be able to reengage fully in what we are doing.
Sum:
Focus on your work. Deliberately disengage during the day without reflexively looking on your phone to relax your nervous system. Then pivot and use your attention wisely to focus on the things that matter most to you.
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